


Book Lovers

by SCP682_HardtoDestroyReptile



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 19:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21307724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SCP682_HardtoDestroyReptile/pseuds/SCP682_HardtoDestroyReptile
Summary: She's a hardened warrior. They're a multi-dimensional monster trapped in a library. Will love cross all boundaries? Tamika Flynn/Librarian. Set before Councilwoman Flynn. I do not own Welcome to Night Vale, nor will I make any money off of this story.
Relationships: Carlos/Cecil Palmer, Janice/Librarian
Kudos: 5





	Book Lovers

The Senior Librarian finished mending A Tale of Two Cities and set it on the mending table with 5 other abused books so the glue could dry. This book was old; it was on its 15th library card, all of them lovingly stamped by librarians and then hastily scrawled by quivering humans.  
  
Senior felt revulsion at the thought. They hadn't worked the circulation desk in years, not since Tamika Flynn killed the former Senior Librarian, leading to Their own promotion.  
  
They took the books from the book return and checked them, meticulously turning each page to look for damage. Romeo and Juliet had orange juice on it. Only the cover was damaged, so it was salvageable with some work. It would require precision and long, tedious work, but Senior hadn't lost a book yet, and They weren't going to start now.  
  
They picked up an anatomy book, and They could feel her presence. They stopped, Their long talons caressing the book. They retracted the talons so their sensitive fingertips could find more information.  
  
She felt like power, like a sandstorm, like a lightning bolt. But there was something deeper, something magical that resonated within Their own mind.  
  
Senior pulled Their appendage back hastily. _It can't be_, They thought. _Not here. Not in this accursed town.   
  
_They touched the book again, savoring a feeling They hadn't experienced for centuries. Tamika's touch had left psychic residue, strong because of her deep emotions. Senior felt respect, excitement, and obsession from her.  
  
A book lover? Here?  
  
Senior paged First Assistant Librarian to the circulation desk. "Touch this book," They ordered.  
  
First touched it. "What about it?" they asked.  
  
"Don't you feel it?" Senior asked excitedly.  
  
"I feel something," First said. "A strong emotion. Whoever had this book really liked it."  
  
Senior remembered that They were more sensitive than many other librarians.  
  
"I feel much more than that," Senior said. "I sense a book lover."  
  
First laughed, a growling low sound that reverberated through the building. "As if that could happen."  
  
"She is though. I know what I feel."  
  
"And who is your book lover?" First sneered.  
  
"Tamika Flynn," Senior said.  
  
First howled with rage. "How dare you invoke that demon name! She is our greatest enemy!"  
  
Librarians were beginning to gather slowly. Senior didn't want an audience, but now that the crowd had heard First’s challenge, Senior had to reassert Their dominance.  
  
"Our greatest enemy, yes, but a true lover of books nonetheless."  
  
The Librarians muttered and fussed among themselves, unsure what to do with this information.  
  
"From this day forward Tamika Flynn will be allowed access to every room but the office and the rare book room."  
  
A gasp of surprise from the librarians filled the room with a rushing, sour wind.  
  
"You can't do this," First said.  
  
"I have done it," Senior said. They raised themselves to their full height. "Or do you challenge me?"  
  
It had been a long time coming. Senior had been a faithful servant to the previous Senior in a manner much like a dog. They thought that had chosen Their own First badly, that this one would rip Them in half with an excuse.  
  
First bowed slightly. "I yield," They said.  
  
Senior nodded Their acceptance of First's surrender, but They knew that it only meant First would come for Them sooner than later.  
  
The group dispersed, having decided there wouldn't be an entertaining coup.   
  
Over the next few weeks Senior took on all of the duties of checking in the books so that They wouldn't miss one of Tamika's loans. She read a lot, and as Senior ran what would have been fingertips for a human over the books They began to know her.  
  
When she turned in Edgar Allan Poe's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" she had been anxious about something in the book. Senior wondered why.   
  
Senior found the Marquis de Sade's, "Trains for Beginners," and they felt that she had been furtively interested in the book.  
  
They found other books, and once They felt that she had been feeding romantic feeling while reading the tragic love story in the Gardener's Almanac. Senior growled, and a few librarians had to deal with Senior's frustrated protective jealousy.  
  
She came back, as Senior knew she would. Senior had been dealing with a silverfish problem in the biography section when They heard shouting and screams. They rushed to the fiction section and found her backed into a corner, her eyes blazing while she held a sword out toward the encircling Librarians.  
  
"Come on then!' she yelled.”Who's first?"  
  
One of the lowly Stockers raised its hands as a signal that they were going to attack.  
  
"Down!" Senior shrieked, and the creature -barely sentient but aware of the pain of disobedience - hurriedly withdrew.  
  
"Back!" Senior snarled at the others. All of them pulled away except First, who only took two steps back, not disobedient enough to be a challenge, but not subservient, either.  
  
Senior looked First directly in the hood. "Back." They snapped the word, and First stepped back with the others.  
  
Senior kept Tamika in view while They spoke to the assembled mob.  
  
"I told you not to assault her."  
  
They saw Tamika pull something out of her backpack, sharing quick glances between the backpack and the mob so she wouldn't miss any movement. She wrapped a bandaged around her arm. Senior had been too busy keeping a wary eye on the Librarians to notice her wound.  
  
"Who hurt her?" They bellowed. "Step forward and take your punishment!"  
  
"I did," First declared. "I challenge.” As he moved forward he came between the Head Librarian and Tamika.  
  
Before First could attack, Senior released a screech that threw First against the wall. Unfortunately the sonic attack hit Tamika as well, and she screamed and put her hands over her ears. She was already against the wall, but she was still hit with enough force to feel like a punch to the gut.  
  
Tamika passed out, and First stood unsteadily to Their feet, if such appendages could be called feet.  
  
Tamika was spared by her unconscious state from seeing the most vicious Librarian attack history has ever known. It was just as well. No one needed to see the wild abandon that Senior used when They slashed First again and again until Their barely corporeal but still mortal body was torn to shreds.  
  
She really didn't need to see Senior bite into First's neck, sending gelatinous arterial spray to cover everything in a 10 foot radius, unintentionally ruining books in the process.  
  
Senior lifted Their head to the sky and howled Their victory. They looked at the reassembled mob and growled, "who challenges?"  
  
No one answered, and Senior told two Stockers to dispose of the corpse.  
  
They looked around and saw an assistant librarian, second class, that had always been obedient.  
  
They pointed a claw. "You are my First Assistant. Guard me while I help her."  
  
Tamika woke to see a Librarian kneeling over her. She looked at the place where a face should be and saw darkness, a void under a hood. A faint white writhing motion far within suggested unnamable foulness, and its eldritch stench enveloped her.  
  
"Do your worst," she said. She pulled a dagger from her belt. "I will do my best."  
  
The Librarian shook Their head and moved away from her. They made a series of guttural grunts and gurglings that Tamika had never heard before, and she could tell that it wasn't the usual screeching and howls she was accustomed to in the library.  
  
There were stops and pauses, and she could tell They were trying to communicate with her. It had never happened to her knowledge.  
  
"I can't understand you," she said.  
  
They reached out a long finger, the claws retracting and revealing something not entirely unlike a human finger. The Librarian reached toward her head, but Tamika raised her dagger again.  
  
The Librarian made sort of a hollow hooting sound, which Tamika thought might have been a sigh. They turned to another Librarian and said something. The other left, and her protector/enemy turned to her.  
  
They wore the Stamp of Authority around their neck, and Tamika fought despair as she realized she was facing the Head Librarian.  
  
Tamika's head began to swim, and she wondered how much blood she had lost. "I know who you are," she said. "You haven't won yet."  
  
The Librarian reached toward her slowly, its forefinger extended with retracted claw. Tamika held the dagger toward it in a weakly shaking hand. The Librarian pulled Their hand back. The world around her faded to black.  
  
She was surprised to wake again_. They could have killed me_, she thought._ Why didn’t they kill me?_ She was in the same place, but someone had covered her with newspapers and put a seat cushion from one of the reading chairs under her head. They had even removed the teeth from the cushion.  
  
The Senior Librarian sat only 5 feet away, crossed legged on the floor.  
  
"I don't know what you want," she said, "but I'm not telling you anything you can use against the Library visitors."  
  
They made the hooting sound again and pushed a wooden bowl toward her. It was filled with a dough like substance that had the faint scent of vanilla.  
  
She had to eat, or she wouldn't recover. She took a pinch of the dough between two fingers. "Is this what you eat?" she asked.  
  
They nodded_. I didn't know they needed to eat_, she thought. The dough was almost tasteless, with only the faint hint of vanilla and sugar.  
  
She ate all of it and pushed the bowl back. The Librarian moved a couple feet closer and held out their finger. They didn't move closer but simply held the finger there.  
  
Tamika knew she had only the smallest of chances of escaping the Library, so risk seemed irrelevant. She reached out slowly and touched the finger. Immediately her mind was flooded with feeling and nonverbal communication from the Librarian. They pulled their finger back, but the connection held.  
  
Tamika felt three distinct words in her mind. _I love you.  
_  
It was a deep romantic affection, but nothing like human love. She felt the craving of a tree soaking up the rain after a long drought, the flower opening in the morning and turning its face up to the son, the sense of coming home after a long, dangerous, and exhausting journey.  
  
"I don't understand," she said.  
  
_Book lover_ They whispered in her mind, and she felt a longing for ancient times. _Your human blood reaches out to me from the Night Vale tainted body._  
  
She couldn't control her thoughts, and she knew that the Librarian understood them.  
  
_You think of us as monsters, but it wasn't always so._  
  
Tamika saw a distorted picture of a room with massive columns. The heat inside the room was like her own small town, but the resemblance ended there. The room was filled from floor to ceiling with books. The picture became clearer, and she saw dark men in white robes and sandals walking and reading. She saw clouds of light move among them, barely shaped into human figures.  
  
_The Library of Ptolemy I Soter, later called Alexandria_, They said. _Our birthplace._  
  
She saw men in togas with larger beings that almost looked human, except for their incredible height and perfect bodies_._

_Greece_ They said, and Tamika felt Their love and loss. _They thought of us as gods._  
  
_There were other places, _They said._ But then the Men with the Soft Meat crowns enslaved us and bound us to their descendants’ service.  
  
_Tamika's mind pulled away from the idea of the men in soft meat crowns. It felt as if her very mind rebelled at the thought.  
  
_You have their blood_, the Librarian said sadly, _but you are Tamika Flynn, and I love you_.  
  
Tamika looked at whatever was under that hood, with its filthy suggestion of maggoty life deep within. She couldn’t see deep inside, and she was glad of it. "Does it have to be this way?" she asked. "Can you ever go back?"  
  
_For us to change Night Vale would have to change, and that is hopeless. We are this way because this is how Night Vale made us._  
  
Tamika felt Their bitter hatred, and she saw attacks on the Library, generally once in a generation. Much more often the Library was partially burned She felt the Librarians howl in anguish when books were burned, and They felt the blasphemous action through time and space.  
  
Tamika began to cry. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so, so sorry. I'll change all of it."  
  
She felt the Librarian's despair, the lack of faith in anything good coming out of Night Vale.  
  
'You don't understand," Tamika said. "You know I have human blood. I don't care about our ancestors. We love, and hate, and fear. We hurt and die. We are human! I will change this!"  
  
_You might_, the Librarian said. _You just might. _  


The Librarian reached out and hesitantly touched her face, gently caressing her cheek with hands that had rent bodies in half. 

When they had begun to talk other Librarians gathered, watching and hissing between themselves. When the Librarian touched her cheek the hissings turned into confused wails. 

_You should go, _the Librarian said. _They want to hurt you.   
_

“I’m sorry,” Tamika said to the group of beings. “I’ll help all of you. I’ll make this right.” 

The noise stopped as all of the Librarians and Stockers present watched her leave. It was almost as if she could feel Their ravenous gaze on her back, and as they neared the lobby she heard Them begin to moan as if in pain that They couldn’t kill her. 

Her Librarian – she thought of Them as her’s now – hissed at the others, and They said, _Mine!   
_

Tamika was glad she could only understand the Head Librarian. The howls of the others seemed as if they would drive her mad if she understood them, as if deep and unknowable secrets lay within. 

She stepped out into the cool night air and enjoyed the breeze on her face after the long days inside the musty library. A few deep breaths felt like heaven after her confinement. The Librarians couldn’t leave the building, but she pulled her Librarian by the arm, and They stepped through the barrier. 

The Library was a part of the town, but it was set apart as well. It was on a small rise just at the edge of town, and Tamika stood at the edge of the vast, unused parking lot looking down on Night Vale. A few lights shone here and there, the 24 hour convenience store, the bowling alley sign, a few homes, and the Radio Station. 

She sat on the cracked concrete and pulled a weed from a crack. She chewed the sour weed thoughtfully. What could she do? 

Any of the leaders were out of the question. She didn’t even consider them. Old Woman Josie would have believed her, and Tamika grieved for her loss. 

The light in the Radio Station went out, and Tamika saw a tall, familiar figure get into a car and leave. 

The Radio Station! Of course! Cecil would believe her – eventually. Probably. 

…Perhaps? 

She had a better chance with him than any of the other prominent Night Vale citizens. And Carlos was a logical man, even if Cecil quite often wasn’t. She returned to the Library to explain her plan to the Head Librarian. 

When he got home Cecil wiped the combination of blood and dirt off of his feet before he entered his apartment. He had to find smarter interns, or at least ones with better reflexes. He hated the empty feeling that the apartment had when Carlos stayed late at the lab, but he knew how important his work was. A warm, comfortable feeling lifted his spirits as he pictured Carlos with test tubes and beakers, measuring and making hurried notes. 

He almost called, but he knew Carlos wouldn’t answer. He was probably so involved with whatever he was doing that he wouldn’t even notice the phone. He tried anyway, hoping to hear Carlos’ voice before he went to bed. 

Carlos’ phone rang on the bedside table, and Cecil hung up. Such a brilliant man, but so forgetful about anything unrelated to Science. 

He lay across the bed on his back fully clothed and trying to ignore the pain in his back. He’d spent an hour hiding under his desk from Station Management. If the intern had hidden he might still be alive, but the boy had tried to flee the station. Cecil hadn’t seen the capture and disemboweling, but he’d heard the crunch of breaking bones, and then the wet, sloppy sounds as Station Management dragged themselves back to their office. The intern’s death had sated their anger, and the day resumed its normal activities. 

He heard a knock and jumped up, ignoring the twinge in his back. _Carlos must have forgotten his keys again._ There was something charming in how he depended on Cecil for the simpler things in life, and Cecil threw open the door to welcome his husband home. 

The smile froze on his face and his knees shook as he looked at two faces he wouldn’t have ever expected at his door late at night. He was glad to see Tamika. Her disappearance after visiting the library was well known, and the town had mourned her assumed death. 

Cecil blinked, hoping he was dreaming, and he pinched himself. Behind Tamika, directly facing him was a Librarian. 

“Cecil, don’t panic,” Tamika said. 

“Listeners,” Cecil said, his on-air personality taking over, “we have a guest with us. Tamika Flynn has returned, and I seem to be having a disturbing hallucination.” 

“It’s no hallucination,” Tamika said. “You’re one of the few people I can trust, and I need you to help me.” 

She wasn’t sure if he understood her. His face had blanched, and he was breathing quickly. She could actually see his legs shaking and he swayed slightly. 

“Tamika,” Cecil said calmly. “Don’t turn around.” 

“You don’t understand,” Tamika said, but Cecil ignored her. 

The Librarian said, _I don’t want to hurt you, _but what Cecil heard what a sound like the grating of great rocks, and a howling sound like a cross between a mountain lion and a tortured soul. 

“What do you want?” Cecil asked, his voice steady even as his body shook so hard he had to hold the doorframe for support. 

Instead of answering the Librarian held out a hand toward Cecil, and as Cecil watched the claws retract he began to understand that They wanted to communicate with him. 

“It’s how They talk,” Tamika said. “Touch Their finger. They won’t hurt you.” 

The Librarian stepped forward slightly, as and They did the porch light fell full onto their face. Tamika had only seen a hint of what lay under the hood, but as the light fell on the Librarian Cecil saw deep into what had been a face in happier incarnations. 

He saw darkness, but darkness as few men have ever seen. It was not the shade of night, or even of death. It was the black void of shapelessness, and it pulled at Cecil. He felt drawn toward the void, and deep within he saw a writing mass of worms, but as he involuntarily looked closer the worms faded away and he felt as if he was falling inward toward an abyss that would swallow him. 

He saw a light, blinding and alluring at the same time. Sound surrounded him, bathing him in a soft blanket of harmonic chorus that calmed him and left him feeling slightly drunk. 

“Who are you?” he asked. 

“We are as you make us,” a voice said. The voice was beautiful and resonant, a thousand beings speaking in unison. The voice caressed him, touching his body, reaching into his soul. 

“Night Vale!” the voices screeched in unison, and Cecil felt the hate of thousands of celestial beings turn against him. 

“We are as you make us!” the voices screeched, and somehow he understood the guttural howlings and curses. 

He was flung backwards, out of the primordial beauty that was the core of Their being and into the howling chaos of the Librarian’s mind. He felt his mind crack under the pressure of Their madness and hatred, and as the Librarian pushed Cecil out of Their mind he saw nothing within the hood but darkness and the writing maggoty mass within. 

It happened quickly. For one moment Tamika watched as Cecil’s mouth dropped open and his eyes glazed. His form seemed to shimmer slightly, like a mirage in a desert, and then he was back, solid and real. He rocked back and forth a few times, and then his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell forward. 

He woke on his own couch with his shoes removed, belt loosened, and a few buttons on his shirt undone. Tamika stood nearby and Carlos knelt by the couch, dabbing his forehead with a cool wet rag. 

“Hey Babe,” Carlos said. “You had us worried.” 

Cecil tried to sit up, but Carlos gently pushed him back. “Not yet,” he said._   
_

_He doesn’t know,_ Cecil thought. _The Librarian must have brainwashed Tamika. _  


He tried to warn Carlos, but all that came out of his mouth was, “Unnamable…eldritch…indescribable!” 

Carlos gulped and glanced at Tamika. “I’m calling an ambulance.” 

“No,” Cecil said. “Too dangerous.” He didn’t want to risk the ambulance drivers. He sat up, unaware of the Being lurking behind him. Tamika made a sign to the Being to stay back. 

Carlos glanced at the Being. 

“I’m never drinking again,” Cecil said, bending over and putting his head in his hands. “I have the worst headache.” 

“Look at me,” Carlos said. He took Cecil’s hands in his own, squeezing them and looking deep into his husband’s eyes. 

“I need you to be calm,” Carlos said. “We have a visitor.” 

Cecil gasped. “No. It didn’t happen. It was a dream, an alcoholic haze.” 

“Cecil,” he heard behind him. It was a soft, childish voice, and one that he recognized instantly. 

“Janice? What are you doing here?” he asked, but as he turned he saw that instead of Janice a glowing Being faced him. They were shaped like Janice, and were even in a wheelchair, but They had no features to speak of. 

“Who are you?” Cecil asked. 

“We are as you make us,” the Being said. “You can call us Janice. When we looked into your soul she was what you showed us as the best of Night Vale.” 

“So you’re… what?” Cecil asked. 

“We are the Keepers of Knowledge,” They said. 

“The Librarians,” Tamika said. 

“I would really like to get you into my lab,” Carlos said. 

“No!” Tamika said. 

“I won’t hurt them,” Carlos said, “but I would love to run a few tests.” 

Cecil looked at his watch. “It’s 4 am. I start broadcasting at 8. If we can get…Janice down there I can do an interview. Night Vale needs to know about this! We’ve spent so long at war, and now there can be peace.” 

“I would like that,” Janice said. “Peace is what you made us for.” 

“What do you mean?” Cecil asked. 

“When we searched your mind we found her, and we found your love for your niece and your need to build a safe place for her. We felt your fears for her future, and your pride. We are the sum of those feelings.” 

“But why me?” 

“Because you are Night Vale, as much as the City Council, or the Men in Soft Meat Crowns.” The Janice stopped and shuddered. 

At the mention of the Men in Soft Meat Crowns Cecil and Tamika glanced away and shuddered as well. 

“You are the Voice,” Janice continued. “You have always been the Voice of Night Vale, before it even had a name, before erosion reduced the mountains into…” 

“I don’t believe in mountains,” Cecil said quickly, fighting back panic as a sense of disgusting antiquity overwhelmed him for a moment. He had a flash of memory, of tall, cold places full of ancient mystical beings, and his own voice echoing through the mountains. 

He shuddered. “I don’t. Believe. In. Mountains.” The memories faded, leaving him feeling a bit disoriented, but fully himself once again. 

“We hated you,” The Janice said, “but in this form we do not have the capacity for that. Thank you, Uncle. May we call you Uncle?” 

“Um…sure. I imprinted the qualities of my niece on the Librarians. That’s going to be difficult to explain on air, but we’ll find a way.” 

Tamika had been watching Cecil and The Janice talking. “There’s a problem,” she said sadly. “You may have removed Their viciousness, Cecil, but I think you removed Their ability to protect themselves. If They based themselves on your idea of Janice They might not be able to survive in Night Vale.” 

“Yes,” Cecil said. “I see what you mean.” 

The Janice turned to Tamika and took her hands in Their own. Tamika felt energy flow into her, calm and fresh, like a cool stream. She’d never seen a cool stream, but she’d read about one, and this was exactly as she’d imagined it. 

“Night Vale will accept us now,” The Janice said. “They will see as we are and love us, as we love them. How could they not?” 

“I wish it was that simple,” Tamika said. “Cecil showed you what he thought of as the best of Night Vale, and we do have those qualities, but all the things the Librarians feared do exist here too.” 

“We were wrong,” The Janice said. “There is so much ugliness here, but there is beauty and nobility too.” 

“Cecil, if people find out that the Librarians can’t defend themselves do you really think they’ll embrace peace? 

“There’s too much history between us,” Cecil said. “The City Council alone would be enough to cause violence, and the Secret Police would definitely take the opportunity to attack.” 

“It’s probably true,” The Janice said. 

“They’ll have to get past me,” Tamika said, “and the Book Club. I’d like to see them try!” 

“You will protect us?” The Janice said, “after all that’s happened?” 

“Till my dying breath!” Tamika said. 

The Janice stepped close to Tamika and wrapped Their arms around her in a warm embrace. ”Our Tamika,” They said. “Dear Book Lover. Stay with Us. Stay with me.” 

Tamika rested her head on The Janice’s shoulder. The Janice ran Their fingers through Tamika’s thick hair, and the hardened warrior felt love for the first time in her long, short life. 

“Yes,” she said. They shared a kiss – of sorts. The Janice weren’t quite mortal, and only partially physical, so Tamika felt the strong elation of passion shared, but only the substance of a kiss. 

“I’ll speak to Night Vale,” Tamika told Cecil. “Anyone who wants to hurt the Keepers of Knowledge wages war against the Book Club. I doubt that anyone will try that.” 

The four of them walked through the dark night, The Janice looking at everything around Them with new insight, and Tamika stayed nearby carefully watching for any dangers. Carlos and Cecil followed, holding hands and watching the young lovers. 

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Cecil whispered to Carlos. 

As they approached the Library they saw other Keepers waiting for them in the parking lot. 

“They can come out now!” Cecil said. 

“We are released,” The Janice said, “but we choose to stay.” 

Carlos and Cecil stayed outside. As Tamika and The Janice walked into the Library she could immediately sense the difference. The Keepers had been busy cleaning the place, and it was changing. Bright, cheerful lighting replaced the gloom, and the circulation desk was no longer surrounded by bear traps. Even the blood stains on the floor were gone. The obsidian desk had been replaced with hard oak, and the bloodstone circle was polished and clean. 

“It looks so nice,” Tamika said. 

“It is Becoming,” The Janice said. As Tamika watched, an ooze filled pit dried and covered itself with bright pink carpet. Small chairs grew like plants, and a small bookshelf filled with childrens' books rose from the floor. 

The familiar musty book smell of the Library gave way to the smell of fresh lumber and new carpet as the building became brighter and more welcoming. Plastic tree grew near the door and circulation desk. 

One of the Keepers - formerly First Assistant Librarian - approached Tamika with a cup of hot tea and a biscuit. 

“Welcome, Consort of the Head Keeper of Knowledge,” They said. 

Tamika took her partner’s hand. “Thank you,” she said. She sipped the strong black tea. It had hints of orange oil. 

“What is this?” she asked. 

“Earl Gray,” The Janice said. “The best tea to drink while reading.” 

Tamika sipped again, the bitter liquid filling her with warmth. 

“Welcome home, Dear One,” The Janice said. They gestured toward an overstuffed reading chair with a paisley pattern and, thankfully, no teeth. 

“I would like to read to you,” The Janice said. 

Tamika took Their glowing hand in her own, chose a book at random, and sat down. The Janice wheeled Their chair close to Tamika’s and sat, leaning Their head on Tamika’s shoulder 

The Janice opened the small poetry book. “Oh, how I love you. Let me count the ways…”


End file.
